Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-10
THE PANAMA. CANAL.
Marvellous Changes which Interns.
tionaI Commerce VIII Undergo as
Soon as the, Canal is Opened.
How the Napoleon of The Shovel Keeps
at Distance All Skeptics and Detract-
ors--solving Great Problem.
Corre,rcrdence of the Gazette.

NEW YORK, Feb. 5.-The two greatest
pacific conceptions man has ever 6itempt-
ed to execute are destined to bring out
the commerce of the world from the &C.
ciert ways which nature, for thousands
OF -ears; had laid cut for it. During Che
last twenty-five years the brains and en-
cry of one man have commanded the
most untractabie elements and digided
Them in order 10 direct AMI guide this
commerce on newly assured roads, and
through channels better adapted SO draw
nearer the countries and people of the
earth. These two bloodess revG utions
are striking and pelpeb}e proofs Of the
progress made, during the second half OF
the nineteenth century, by technology,
which nowadays hardly recognizes any
obstacles. The persevering viii and an
shaken energy OF wonderful man, four
score and two years old, the immortal
Count de Lesseps, nave planned out these
two wonders, and it is the same will
power and energy that will CRAFTY his
longing for the birth of his second child,
the opening CT the Eanama Canal in 1867
Then to use his own words, retire with
the satisfaction of having improved our
planet, benefited his fellow-men and reR-
dered comparatively simple and sure the
circUnnsrigation of the globe.
A glance at the Mappemonde [the map
of the world will not fail to convince
the observer of the marvellous changes
which the international commerce and
navigation will undergo as soon as the
Canal of Panama is opened.
The meridian Of Panama, which, prac-
tioelly speaking, is nearly the same as
that OF New York and Washington, is ex-
actly opposite to the Malay peninsula,
whose principal seaport Singapore claims
to be. Consequently, it is easy to esti-
mate the important maritime movement
which will take place from east to west,
and vice versa, if we turn our eyes toward
SueG, ard bring the Oriental and OCci-
dental canals into commercial relation
snip or partnership.
Compared with the Suez Canal, that of
Panama possesses two great advantages
over its brother. The first advantage is
that South America extends much further
toward the Austral pole than the African
continent; the second is obvious and great
as the first, inasmuch as the American
Isthmus can be reached, on both sides,
almost IN direct line from the Atlantic
and Pacific Seaports; whilst to reach Port
Said in Egypt many turns and byways are
necessary and cannot be dispensed with.
The shortening of the distance for
ships which will pass through the Canal
Of Panama, instead of going round Cape
Horn or the Strait Of Magellan, is about
10000 miles. Distance, time ard money
combined are decided advantages which
can be hardly appreciated st their Just
value.
The opening of the Suez Canal greatly
fastened the employment of steam as 8
moving power. The Canal of Panama
will give livelier impulse to the studies
of new moving agency which, in all
respects, is destined to supplant and
eclipse steam. That this new force
will be electricity seems to be g foregone
solution of the problem. In both hemis-
pheres electricians are hard at work, and
the fruits of their exeltions are ripening
up very fast. They have already found
the means of producing, storing up and
handling the electrical power with such
ease and dexterity that we seem to be on
the eve of new era for the use of this
powerful agency, as moving power on
land and water. Here little depression
will help the American readers and think
ers to understand better the profit that
will accrue to the United States when
they will remember that, a few years ago,
the students Of geography found on the
map OF America the large region, situated
between the Missouri and Rio Grande
rivers, designated as the Great American
Desert. To-day the whole of that i'm
mense wilderness is crossed by numerous
railroads bound north, south, east and
iS b. nnl
with farms, but also with prosperous
town and villages. NY intention is to
show, by more or less analogous COM
psrlsOn what the immense Pacific ocean
is destined to become when the ships
will ply between the Atlantic and the Pa
ciic;plOugh through the canal and play on
its waters the part which the railroads
perform on the Great American Desert.
But the question q thousand times
asked and oflimes answered with either
8 malicious or skeptical motive: "Will
the American Isthmus be pierced?n is
still q matter OF conjecture, and will
likely remain so until the last six months,
as 1t happened with its prototype, the
Isthmus of Suez.
This great problem: CIVIL the Isthmus
of Panama be pierced?" cannot he more
SUuCIusINeI1 duC SATISFACTORILY l2ceU ana
solved than by establishing progressive
comparison with the difficulties which
the digging of the Suez Canal had to sur
mont, and by strengthening this parallel
with the opinion of competent men, and,
above all, the firm confidence, better
the certainty which NJ. lie Compile de Les
seps carries everywhere and imparts
into the hearts of his powerful army of
fnanCiers aud shareholders. Always at
the front, lofty mountains of difficulties
disappear at his command, and nature is
more docile to the physical forces which
the giant brings to bear upon it. Each
time new enemy threatens to hurt his
enterprise, the great engineer, drawing
from within himself colossal force and
courage, rushes on to the thick Of the
battle, crosses and recrosses the seas,
faces his adversaries, scstters them right
and left, revives his disheartened friends
and colaborers. This Napoleon of the
shovel is true magnate around which
people of all nationalities are drawn, as
oy enchantment, and which keeps st
distance all skeptics and de-
tractors. No rally is possible when the
man who knows no halt measures and |
never had recourse to small means has re-
pulsed and dispersed the opposing forces.
At the advanced age of eighty-two, he |
IS Is active and relentless worker to as